The SD-WAN product, which is being beta-tested with a limited group of channel partners and business customers, unites connectivity and SD-WAN in a turnkey offering, says Comcast Business' Craig Schlagbaum.

Through Telestax's RestcommONE Marketplace, service providers can select and offer SMS-enabled business applications to their existing business customers and earn lucrative recurring revenue on the real-time communication apps that customers are asking for.

Master agents must grow in order to keep the channel relevant to the telecom giants that supply their core services. That means we'll see more mergers and acquisitions and some new names buying their way into the telecom industry's recurring revenues.

At SAP's Sapphire Now conference, CenturyLink has unveiled a managed solution based on FlexPod technology for SAP deployments and ongoing management of SAP applications, in partnership with Cisco and NetApp.

Sprint's parent company, SoftBank, stressed its interest in merging the wireless provider with another company, with T-Mobile being its first choice. SoftBank said that is aiming to launch negotiation talks, but is open to other merger possibilities, too.

Comcast and Charter revealed plans to jointly tackle the wireless market and go head to head with providers like AT&T and Verizon, but partners say that unless the two cable giants can add value beyond reselling wireless through MVNO agreements, their combined wireless ambitions will fall flat.

CNBC and Reuters are reporting the unnamed telecom company that is competing for wireless spectrum holder Straight Path Communications against AT&T is Verizon. The secondary bidder submitted a new offer on Monday morning, nearly doubling AT&T's original offer.

Popular consumer wireless provider T-Mobile is winning over business customers too, according to the carrier, which announced that its business services segment just had its most successful first quarter with growing revenues and business subscriber wins.

Verizon introduced a cloud-based managed security service, Software-Defined Perimeter. The latest service, which lets enterprises ID and block breaches at the network border, is not immediately available through channel partners.

RapidScale co-founder and CEO Randy Jeter shared how the cloud service provider is attracting stronger talent and benefiting partners by paying more attention to its workplace, amenities and company culture.